Chicagoland book club: The McGowan Women

One thing to know about our book club: We meet every other month, rotating at a different family member’s house. The host provides a buffet dinner and if possible attempts to reflect something of the book in the menu. Occasionally, we dress in theme to parallel the setting of a book. Past costumes have included “roaring 20’s” attire for “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald and Elizabethan garb to commemorate “The Other Boleyn Girl” by Philippa Gregory.

Average time spent talking about the book before conversation veers off into politics and family issues: We believe in a very long cocktail hour where we catch up and enjoy social time. We convene for dinner and then start the book discussion which can last for an hour or more, depending on how anxious we are to get back to our family gossip.

Authors we’d most like to meet: Our club kicked off with a shared love for Jane Austen; “Pride and Prejudice” was the first book we chose. We would have all loved to meet her. Anna Quindlen and John Irving are among our favorites, too. Our most recent meeting offered a special treat when an author did attend our book club: Brigid Pasulka, author of “A Long, Long Time Ago and Essentially True,” is a friend of one of the cousins and joined us for a discussion.

The next book we’re reading: “Galway Bay” by Mary Pat Kelly

Five books we loved: “Pride and Prejudice” by Jane Austen; “Middlesex: A Novel” by Jeffrey Eugenides; “A Widow for One Year” by John Irving; “Memoirs of a Geisha: A Novel” by Arthur Golden; “The Other Boleyn Girl” by Gregory